Article

Tips for Migrating HR Data into a Cloud Application

by Bernd Noll | insiderPROFILES

April 1, 2013

Three basic and important benefits drive a company’s decision to move to the cloud: more flexibility, less dependency on IT, and lower costs. While the benefits are certainly worth striving for, companies cannot ignore the potential risks that come with moving to the cloud, which is why choosing the right migration approach and service provider are key.

Those who have traveled by air have most likely experienced it at some point — the feeling you get right after take-off, when the plane moves up through the clouds and you’re surrounded by a white haze. Many are overcome with a moment of instinctual fear, blind to the mechanics that go into safe flying. Without modern, state-of-the-art technology and equipment, one can imagine how easy it would be to get lost out there in the clouds.

This fear is similar to how many businesses feel when moving human resources (HR) data to a cloud-based application. Without state-of-the-art software and services to support you, it would be easy to lose that data, severely disrupting your day-to-day business operations. With this possibility in mind, some might ask if the benefits are worth the risk.

Weighing Your Luggage — Are the Risks Too Heavy?

The business side of a company is more apt to see the benefits of moving to the cloud, as the risks often lay in the minds of IT departments. There are three basic and important benefits that drive a company’s decision to move to the cloud:

More flexibility

Less dependency on IT

Lower costs

While the benefits are certainly worth striving for, companies cannot ignore the potential risks that come with moving to the cloud. Disruptions to day-to-day processes and lost or stolen data could be extremely damaging due to the nature of HR information.

With the benefits and risks defined, companies can move to the next stage — choosing the migration approach and a service provider.

Going Through the Security Checkpoint

When migrating your data, it is tempting to simply take all of your existing data and transfer it into the new environment to save time and resources. However, this approach can lead to unneeded or inaccurate data being moved to the cloud platform, which could result in bad performance, business disruptions, and more.

The safer approach is to perform an integrated analysis in which you analyze, select, and transfer only the data needed. While this approach takes more time, in the end, it will help you reduce the complexity of your environment, increase data quality, and lower maintenance costs.

Whichever of these options you choose, one of the biggest challenges of moving to a cloud-based application is guaranteeing business continuity. To ensure that day-to-day operations aren’t adversely affected, you need access to your full data history and support for your business processes.

Don’t Fly Alone

Business continuity can be achieved with help from SNP Technologies. With the SNP Transformation Backbone — a standardized software solution for ERP transformations — you can migrate your data to a new application safely without disruptions. From the start, your business users will have everything they need for their day-to-day work so that your business stays up and running.

SNP carries out its projects using a standardized, software-based approach known as SNP Business Landscape Transformation. Using this approach, SNP certified consultants can transform your SAP software systems using tailor-made transformation rules — reducing the risk of error while improving the quality of the transformation process.

With SNP’s help, the benefits of migrating data will greatly outweigh the risks, and you can rest assured you won’t get lost out there in the cloud. For more information, please visit snp-ag.com/eng/solutions.

Bernd Noll has more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry and has spent most of his professional career in IT management and software architecture. In 2011 he was made Vice President and CTO of SNP America Inc.

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